


Broken Inside

by Atramint



Category: RWBY
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Volume 5 (RWBY)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:53:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22896769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atramint/pseuds/Atramint
Summary: The boy wonders how she can be so broken inside.She wonders how she could be anything else.
Kudos: 5





	Broken Inside

"How can you be so broken inside?"

Cinder frowned as the child continued his tirade. Did this fool _actually_ not understand the world he was trying to protect? How could she be anything _but_?

This entire world was broken. Pain and misery were dealt in abundance, always seeking those least deserving, those least capable of retaliation.

The elite used their power to force the rest of them to bend to their will, and they always would. It didn't even matter how much power they really had, at where you decided to draw the line between the powerful and the hungry. The kingdoms' rulers wore iron gloves. Enforcers reveled in being favored pets while beating their lessers. Sick adults demanded the obedience of children, and those same children would form pecking orders of their own, just to have some scrap of control, to make someone else bend even lower than they had to.

And Cinder had bent. Oh, how had she bent. Her pain and suffering was a means to avoid even more of the same, or so she had been told. So she had believed. But it was never enough. There was always further to bend. Until there wasn't.

She discovered her semblance when she discovered the truth.

When she became glass.

Glass did not bend. It did not yield to others. What glass did was shatter, and become sharp.

She became broken, because that was the secret. She would no longer bend herself to the whims of others. She would break, and become a weapon.

And so that old woman had learned too, a shard of glass through her throat.

It was horrendous.

Poor, young Cinder. She wanted to say she was a fast learner, that her epiphany was enough, but she was still a child. The little girl heaved so much, terrified at the fact that she'd killed her tormentor. In retrospect, she guesses she probably had a panic attack, or something along those lines. It was the worst night of her life. That horrible woman even had to ruin her first victory, didn't she?

Over time, though, Cinder learned to control herself. Those that died by her hand were not innocent. They deserved their fate. She could not spare them her sympathy, her compassion, her horror, her pain. She needed those for herself.

And so she grew, in this new world where the veil was drawn back. The world tried to make her bend, but would only break her further. And the more she broke, the more sharp edges she had. The more blades she could use to fight back.

When Salem found her, and gave her this mission, everything clicked into place. She had finally found her destiny.

This boy was upset at her for being proud? Of course she was proud! The small, shaking, weak coward of a girl was no more. Cinder had broken her and made her into something horrendous and beautiful. The horrors of the world could no longer touch her without cutting themselves on her edges.

These pawns thought of themselves as heroes, but Cinder was the one that would cure this corrupt world. When she was done, there would be no more pain, no more killing, because that power would be hers alone.

She narrowed her eyes at the insect standing before her. He thought he was important, didn't he? He thought his suffering made him right. He thought he deserved vengeance for whatever had happened to him.

“Who are you again?”

She met his charge with a smile. He wanted her to pay? He wanted to defeat _her_? Let him try. Where she had succeeded, he would fail.

Because she was glass.

And glass did not bend.

**Author's Note:**

> My first work posted to this site. Hopefully not the last.


End file.
